Pepsi is sitting on the sidelines of this year’s Super Bowl for the first time in 23 years. Instead, it is spending more than $20 million on a social media experiment entitled The Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsi launched the initiative today at www.refresheverything.com. The program will award more than $20 million in 2010 to ideas that will “refresh” our world and move it forward in six categories: Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighborhoods and Education. Individuals and organizations are encouraged to submit ideas on the refresheverything web site. Visitors are also encouraged to return to the site to vote on the best ideas. Your votes determine which ideas get funded. Voting begins online February 1 and winning grants will be allocated in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $250,000.
Pepsi is supporting the promotion aggressively with an interactive website, blog, “pop-up cafes” and various social media tools, such as Twitter and Facebook. A well-designed Idea Tool Kit is also available for download to help you get started. Pepsi Refresh is being lauded as the most ambitious mashup of crowdsourcing and cause marketing to date. Crowdsourcing is when you rely on the public to do research or work for you: in this instance, providing ideas that warrant Pepsi’s philanthropic dollars.
It’s a clever idea and one worth watching.
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